Various product packaging designs employ barriers or seals across an opening to the package. Such seals can serve as a primary or secondary barrier against contaminant ingress. Such seals may also maintain product freshness. In addition, such seals may provide a tamper-indicating function wherein breaking or removing the seal provides evidence that the package has been opened.
An example of a closure with an internal tamper-indicating seal is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,003. The closure includes a base for mounting the closure to the container. The base includes a pour spout. The interior of the pour spout is initially occluded by a sealing disk which is molded as unitary part of the pour spout. The periphery of the sealing disk defines a reduced cross-sectional thickness of material which functions as a frangible web connecting the sealing disk to the pour spout. The upper (outwardly facing) surface of the sealing disk includes a pull tab which is grasped by a user's fingers for ripping the sealing disk out of the pour spout. The closure also includes a hinged lid with an internal collar to telescopically receive the pour spout in sealing engagement when the lid is closed so as to provide a liquid-tight and air-tight system after the sealing disk has been removed.
While closures of the above-discussed type function generally satisfactorily in applications for which they are intended, it would desirable to provide an improved closure which could be employed in a variety of other applications in which the above-discussed closure is not suitable. For example, in some applications it might be desirable to provide a relatively small diameter pour spout. Access to a sealing disk disposed in such a small-diameter pour spout would be difficult. It may be difficult or impossible to provide a pull tab arrangement within such a small-diameter spout that could be easily grasped by the user.
Further, it may be desirable to provide a closure base molded from a particular material having certain desirable characteristics (e.g., strength, greater hardness, etc.). However, such characteristics may not be compatible with the desired operation of a unitary molded sealing member. That is, some materials that would be useful for an exterior closure body may not have characteristics that accommodate relatively easy tearing for seal removal. Further, while some materials may have strength or hardness characteristics desirable for a closure body, such materials may not be as compatible with the container product as would be desired. Also, a strong closure body material might have undesirably high gas permeability characteristics that would reduce the effectiveness of the material as a seal.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved closure for accommodating the use of a small dispensing orifice or spout as well as a large dispensing orifice or spout wherein an internal seal could be readily opened by the user.
Such an improved closure should advantageously provide a tamper-indicating means for visually indicating that the seal has been opened.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved closure could accommodate the use of a variety of seal materials in conjunction with a variety of different closure body materials.
It would also be desirable to provide such an improved closure with a design that could accommodate storage of the container and closure in an inverted (upside down) position wherein the closure supports the container. This would be especially useful for maintaining the fluid product in contact with the dispensing orifice so that, upon opening the closure, the product could be readily discharged without having to wait for the fluid product to flow down toward the dispensing orifice.
Also, it would be desirable if such an improved closure could be provided with a design that would accommodate efficient, high quality, large volume manufacturing techniques with a reduced product reject rate.
Further, such an improved closure should advantageously accommodate its use with a variety of conventional containers having a variety of conventional container finishes, such as conventional threaded or snap-fit attachment configurations.
The present invention provides an improved closure which can accommodate designs having the above-discussed benefits and features.